3.07.2007

Two more people linked to a nationwide investigation into the illegal sale of steroids were arraigned Tuesday on drug-related charges as more athletes' names surfaced, including the controversial former reliever . Really? John Rocker? You don't say.

Also among the implicated were major leaguer David Bell, giant Ohio bodybuilder and 1996 Olympic wrestling gold-medalist/WWE wrestler Kurt Angle. These names were all on Applied Pharmacy's client list - a Mobile, Alabama company that was recently raided in connection with the investigation.

Rocker's publicist told the New York Daily News that he admitted taking Human Growth Hormone (HGH), but claims it was prescribed by a doctor for his rotator cuff surgery in 2003.

Steven and Karen Lampert, the two arraigned in the investigation, pleaded not guilty in an Albany County courtroom and were released without bail. The Anti-Aging Centers are charged with submitting prescriptions to a Florida pharmacy - some the district attorney say were "obviously forged" - for more than $50,000 in drugs for people without a medical need.

Steven Lampert is charged with 20 counts, his wife with two. One day earlier, 11 other defendants plead not guilty as well, including four officials from Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Florida.

Bell, a third baseman with the Phillies and Brewers last season, says he received a shipment of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) last April and refused to disclose what supposed medical condition the drug was prescribed for.

Martinez, considered an "unindicted co-conspirator" who won the Arnold (Schwarzenegger) bodybuilding competition Saturday, claims that he bought testosterone from the Lamperts after their clinic told him he had low levels of the hormone.

Cause, yeah. He definitely looks like he's lacking testosterone.

He also said the company asked him to become a partner, but he declined, saying that he "didn't trust them" after others had warned him not to do business with them.

UPDATE: John Rocker, of course, denies having ever had HGH in his system. He told ESPN Radio's "The Herd" "If somebody's got a beef to make with me, show me a prescription." (BEEF! See above pic of Victor Martinez). "I was trying to pitch all the way up until a week before I had my surgery. And obviously feeling as bad as I was, I called every doctor I could [to find out] what can I do to strengthen my shoulder and give me more arm strength. Every one of them said go to a GNC, buy something over the counter, human growth hormone, these very several amino acids... basically [that] is the way it's done."